CaseWORTH™ - Yoes Law Firm Case Study

Background:
In 25 years of practice and with scores of cases successfully settled, Bob Yoes has negotiated with hundreds of parties and hard nosed insurance adjusters. Bob knew that providing easy to understand damage details was key to an adjuster quickly authorizing a settlement. Unfortunately, Bob couldn't find the tools he needed to keep the many, continually updated details organized in a way that  he could share those details efficiently.

Problem:
Lisa is Bob’s paralegal. Like many attorneys and paralegals Lisa uses Excel, lots of time and a handheld calculator to manage the details of their PI cases. Lisa told us "For every case, we build separate Excel sheets for the medical bills, lost income and so on.  Everything is scattered across multiple spreadsheets.  It is time consuming putting everything into separate Excel spreadsheets then pulling it all together.  It’s a real pain to deal with so much paper from the file and work up the different spreadsheets."

Lisa described their negotiation preparations, by saying "When you are preparing for a settlement you have to pull up all your different spreadsheets then figure all the cost totals yourself with a calculator.  Put all that on a final spreadsheet to submit.  All this manual work takes about half a day depending on the size of the case. It frustrates me when a case doesn’t settle the first time because I has to go through the same process for every round of negotiations.”

Finding the solution:
We met Bob at a state Bar Association convention in 2004.  He was drawn to our booth by our "Personal Injury Settlement Calculator" sign.  As we demonstrated CaseWORTH™, Bob asked questions and liked the answers so much he wrote a check standing right there in the booth.  He recognized that CaseWORTH was the solution to his problem.  (When was the last time you wrote a check for new software at a trade show?)

Installation and Training:
After Bob returned from the convention Lisa contacted us to get the software.  Our support staff assisted Lisa with the software installation and spent about 90 minutes training her over the Internet.  We didn’t hear from Lisa for a month, so we called her to make sure there were no problems.  She was happy to hear from us and said “I use the program every single day.  We couldn’t live without it.”  We were a little surprised that she had been using the product without any follow-up training.  She showed us some of the case files she had created.  It was clear that she understood the program.  She explained “There is a place to put doctors, their statements, payments and the services performed.  Once you get used to the program it takes no time at all to do the data entry.” 

The Results:
Bob is pleased with his investment in CaseWORTH.  He says"CaseWORTH is the answer to my prayers.  Lisa and I love it.  In addition to handling the organization and tracking of damages, it provides a great report to include with my demand letter to the adjuster.  My favorite feature is the future damages calculator which allows me to see the present value of future damages."

Lisa said her old way of doing things can’t compare to CaseWORTH: "With CaseWORTH it's all just there for you to see anytime, just look at the tabs for the totals. You don't have to pull anything together and it prints the all reports for you.  I can have Bob ready to talk to the adjuster in about 30 minutes - compared to half a day of prep work with Excel.  It's a major time saver."

"If one of the attorneys asks what the costs are right now in a case, I just pull CaseWORTH up and the total is there.  It also shows me the total medicals and client’s out of pocket expenses, without having to pull the file."

Lisa’s favorite feature is the Settlement Statement report. "With just a couple of clicks the client’s Settlement Statement is done, the client signs it and we cut their check.  It is so cool!"